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Government Skills: December 2005 Board Meeting
Author: Sue Ferns, Created 13/01/2006 17:07:22
Government Skills, the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for central government and the armed forces, is the last to join the Skills for Business Network. However, it has now successfully completed the Sector Skills Development Agency’s (SSDA) licensing procedure and so will be fully operational in the New Year.
Against this background, the Board met on 16 December and was keen to ensure both that Government Skills adds value to the training and development programmes of individual Departments, Agencies and NDPBs, and that it is seen to do so for employers and employees.
Given the strong emphasis in the work programme on Professional Skills for Government, both trade union Board representatives continue to press for progress below Grade 7 on the basis of consultation with Departmental Trade Union Sides. At present, it seems that some Departments are forging ahead with their own plans, with little regard to consistency of approach, whereas others are doing little or nothing. Prospect also still has concerns about the roll out for specialists and the potential tensions between Heads of Profession and departmental HR teams in doing so. Helpfully, the Board agreed that it would call Departments and selected Heads of Profession to account in future meetings. However, we also need regular feedback from union reps so that we can deal proactively with any issues that arise – either positive or negative.
The Board also discussed plans to launch the SSC in England and the Devolved Administrations during the early part of 2006. There are likely to be 5 launch events, starting with one in London on 2 February, which will set out the SSC’s work programme and delivery strategy. A key aim for the union Board representatives is that, resulting from these events, civil servants should be much clearer about what the SSC offers to them. There may well be opportunities as part of this process to demonstrate the valuable work done by Union Learning Representatives. So if you are a ULR, or know one with a positive story to tell, please do let me know as soon as possible.
Comments:
Re: Government Skills: December 2005 Board Meeting Author:Maria Hayter (at 28/01/2006 16:02:28)
I gather that there is now a PSG framework especially for science. Who was involved in drawing this up and how are unions being consulted in departments about implementing it?
Re: Government Skills: December 2005 Board Meeting Author:Chris Rundle (at 10/02/2006 12:58:26)
I think the cabinet office and the Chief Scientist were involved in drawing up the skills framework. It is up to each department to implement PSG, invariably with no extra money. Each departmental TUS should be offered the opportunity of being involved (or asking to be involved). PSG also needs to be aligned with any head of science profession work as well. In DefraProspect is involved on the project boards of both the PSD implementation and Head of Science profession project boards.
Experience to date also shows that agency TUS' will need to push chief executives into action as they can be left behind. This is particularly important as many agencies are 'delivery bodies' and the opportunities for policy or corporate experince will be come increasingly rare. This is further hampered by moving and re-locating corporate functions and delivery functions away from policy functions (normally outside London) - Defra is very good at this!
Re: Government Skills: December 2005 Board Meeting Author:silver surfer (at 20/02/2006 13:34:32)
it is frustrating that the government recognises skills but puts no value to these - allowances for professional qualifications are long overdue - departments only apply them intermittently - such application has no real basis - this needs to be urgently redressed in terms of fairness and retention